White squirrel helps itself to bird seed in Dunbar garden

White squirrel helps itself to bird seed in Dunbar garden

THIS little snow white squirrel was spotted helping itself to a feast of bird seed in a garden in Dunbar.

The unusual squirrel was captured on film by resident Dr Alan Porter when it appeared in his garden.

Dr Porter said it was unknown just how rare white squirrels are in the UK but rough estimates have suggested that there could be as few as 100, compared to 2.5million grey squirrels.

He said: "The pure white colour is due to a rare recessive mutation in the pigmentation pathway. Both normal (grey) squirrel parents must each carry one mutant copy of the gene to generate a white offspring.

"Our white beauty has black (not pink) eyes, so she is not an albino. As she has a black eye colour, the scientific name is leucism. A recent sighting in Pitlochry may be a white variant of the rarer red squirrel."

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